Related papers: A Note on a Picture-Hanging Puzzle
Given an infinite linear group with a finite set of generators, we show that the shortest word length of an element of infinite order has an upper bound that depends only on the number of generators and the degree. This provides a…
Inspired by a chessboard puzzle of Dudeney, the general position problem in graph theory asks for a largest set $S$ of vertices in a graph such that no three elements of $S$ lie on a common shortest path. The number of vertices in such a…
We consider space functions $s(n)$ of finitely presented groups $G =< A\mid R> .$ (These functions have a natural geometric analog.) To define $s(n)$ we start with a word $w$ over $A$ of length at most $n$ equal to 1 in $G$ and use…
The Mondrian problem consists of dissecting a square of side length $n\in \NN$ into non-congruent rectangles with natural length sides such that the difference $d(n)$ between the largest and the smallest areas of the rectangles partitioning…
Categorification is the process of finding category-theoretic analogs of set-theoretic concepts by replacing sets with categories, functions with functors, and equations between functions by natural isomorphisms between functors, which in…
A configuration of pebbles on the vertices of a graph is solvable if one can place a pebble on any given root vertex via a sequence of pebbling steps. A function is a pebbling threshold for a sequence of graphs if a randomly chosen…
We define sequence patterns of length $n$ and level $\ell$ to be equivalence classes of sequences that have $n$ elements from the set of $\ell$ integer symbols $\{1,2,\ldots,\ell\}$ with no restriction on repetition, where the equivalence…
What is the smallest number of pieces that you can cut an n-sided regular polygon into so that the pieces can be rearranged to form a rectangle? Call it r(n). The rectangle may have any proportions you wish, as long as it is a rectangle.…
For any finite group $G$, and any positive integer $n$, we construct an association scheme which admits the diagonal group $D_n(G)$ as a group of automorphisms. The rank of the association scheme is the number of partitions of $n$ into at…
Let $n_g(k)$ denote the smallest order of a $k$-chromatic graph of girth at least $g$. We consider the problem of determining $n_g(k)$ for small values of $k$ and $g$. After giving an overview of what is known about $n_g(k)$, we provide…
We consider a problem introduced by Mossel and Ross [Shotgun assembly of labeled graphs, arXiv:1504.07682]. Suppose a random $n\times n$ jigsaw puzzle is constructed by independently and uniformly choosing the shape of each "jig" from $q$…
An inglenook puzzle is a classic shunting (switching) puzzle often found on model railway layouts. A collection of wagons sits in a fan of sidings with a limited length headshunt (lead track). The aim of the puzzle is to rearrange the…
A sorting network is a shortest path from 12..n to n..21 in the Cayley graph of the symmetric group S(n) generated by nearest-neighbor swaps. A pattern is a sequence of swaps that forms an initial segment of some sorting network. We prove…
Given a set of colored points in the plane, we ask if there exists a crossing-free straight-line drawing of a spanning forest, such that every tree in the forest contains exactly the points of one color class. We show that the problem is…
This paper deals with a popular form of counted-thread embroidery: the cross-stitch. More precisely, we are interested in the minimal length of embroidery thread one need to fill a given picture. We give a complete answer to this problem…
We construct a sequence of balanced finite presentations of the trivial group with two generators and two relators with the following property: The minimal number of relations required to demonstrate that a generator represents the trivial…
A \Def{composition} of a positive integer $n$ is a $k$-tuple $(\l_1, \l_2, \dots, \l_k) \in \Z_{> 0}^k$ such that $n = \l_1 + \l_2 + \dots + \l_k$. Our goal is to enumerate those compositions whose parts $\l_1, \l_2, \dots, \l_k$ avoid a…
A pattern $\alpha$ is a string of variables and terminal letters. We say that $\alpha$ matches a word $w$, consisting only of terminal letters, if $w$ can be obtained by replacing the variables of $\alpha$ by terminal words. The matching…
In the game of pegging, each vertex of a graph is considered a hole into which a peg can be placed. A pegging move is performed by jumping one peg over another peg, and then removing the peg that has been jumped over from the graph. We…
Puzzle solving is a combinatorial challenge due to the difficulty of matching adjacent pieces. Instead, we infer a mental image from all pieces, which a given piece can then be matched against avoiding the combinatorial explosion.…